St pete wrote:
Saintsfan, do you think that it's getting to familiar with pryce going missing in big games?
Does he miss longy?
I'm only going on what I remember of him before his injury last season and I'd say from that quite the opposite. I think he came out of his shell after Longy left. He was superb and always involved in every game. Ironic that the last time we beat Wigan was also the last time he played in a match against Wigan, and he was very dominant in that match. His solo try from the scrum was a masterstroke of halfback play which we don't get most of the time because we have very few thinkers in our team.
He is undoubtedly unfit but it was more than that on Saturday. He wasn't doing much in the way of anything really except poor passing and rubbish kicking (bar one hoof, which found the turf). He didn't send any ball to the right as he did in the last two games, mixing and matching, so I think he was ignoring the game plan.
Had Royce not been aware of Gaskell's inexperience and the thumping we got at the hands of Wigan at the Stobart and the chances of a backline player breaking down (none of us know who exactly were the 'walking wounded' after all), I'm sure he would have pulled Pryce off in the first half and thrown Gaskell on because we would have got more out of Gaskell on Saturday than we got from Pryce, and I never thought I would be writing that opinion down after a match against Wigan!
I was pretty annoyed with Pryce actually although I haven't said anything until now. It must be because you're called St Pete that I feel I have to confess.